Narayanasamy and his Cabinet colleagues surprised everyone by their sudden dharna outside Raj Nivas on Wednesday afternoon.
Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Thursday continued his dharna along with his ministerial colleagues outside Raj Nivas — the official residence of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi — for the second day demanding that she accord sanction for 39 government proposals including a free rice scheme. The CM announced that the protest would continue on Friday too if the demands are not met.
"We will continue our dharna until all our demands are met and it will continue on Friday too. The decision on the protest will be taken after consulting with the leaders of all the parties tomorrow," Narayanasamy said on Thursday evening.
Amid the protest by the CM, L-G Bedi left for Chennai to attend private events as per her schedule. "The Chief Minister, who is responsible for maintaining law and order, is holding an illegal siege of Raj Nivas," she said in Chennai.
Narayanasamy and his Cabinet colleagues surprised everyone by their sudden dharna outside Raj Nivas on Wednesday afternoon. They had food and slept on the streets along with supporters after rejecting Bedi's offer for talks.
"I reiterate that all my demands made in the letter dated February 7 to you need to be addressed immediately. We will not relent until a lasting solution is found to all the issues I raised in my letter," he wrote in response to Bedi's letter on Wednesday night.
As the protest continued for the second day, Congress workers took to streets by protesting across the Union Territory. Congress ally DMK extended support to the protest. "The latest political stand-off in Puducherry shows that the BJP has turned Governors into party general secretaries. The episode once again makes us wonder whether there is a need to re-look at Governor's post," DMK president MK Stalin tweeted after speaking to Narayanasamy over the phone.
The latest clash between Bedi and Narayanasamy is a result of the former's move to enforce strict implementation of compulsory wearing of helmets despite the Congress government wanting to implement it in a phased manner after creating awareness among the public.
Narayanasamy said that he was forced to resort to dharna after Bedi ignored all the 22 letters written by him. "I have written 22 letters to her on various issues. Since she ignored all these letters we were forced to resort to protest. Only after our dharna, she replied to my letter giving us an appointment for February 21, but it will not take more than 30 miniutes for her to give approval for all the proposals" he said.
Responding to Narayanasamy's dharna, Bedi tweeted that he could have asked to meet instead of sitting on a dharna. "He writes a letter and demands a reply by resorting to a blockage of Raj Nivas. Totally avoidable, causing huge inconvenience to the general public," she said. In the letter to him, she invited him for a detailed discussion on the issue on February 21 even though his letter did not mention the dharna at all.
Chief minister, in his reply to the letter, said that all the issues raised in his letter dated February 7th were not something new. "I have been raising all these issues regularly either through letters or through the files. I would again reiterate that your various actions of commission and omissions, listed by me in my letter have made the people of Puducherry to suffer and caused untold miseries. Your undemocratic acts and way of functioning exhibited to people 'what can be the worst disastrous rule of a dictator?' The autocratic attitude i.e, 'I am the Government', 'I know everything' and 'I am everything'," he said, adding that the peaceful protest was undertaken by him "is basically a people's movement against your continuous acts of high-handed dictatorship". He said that he would not relent until a lasting solution was found to all the issues raised by him in the letter.
Another clash
The clash between is a result of L-G Bedi’s move to implement compulsory wearing of helmets despite the Congress governmentt’s suggestion to implement it in a phased manner.
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